AirTags should be used in all cars for tracking, police warn

(Image credit: Karen S. Freeman / iMore)

A UK police force says that people should consider putting an AirTag into their car just in case it gets stolen. The suggestion comes after the force was able to successfully locate a vehicle within 40 minutes of it being taken from its owner.

Sheffield North West NPT tweeted to say that a car theft was reported after masked men entered a property to locate its keys. They stole the car after finding them, but less than an hour later it was picked back up by police.

Earlier this morning we were called to reports that a masked man had entered a property on Edmund Road and stolen a set of car from the property, before stealing the car and driving away. The savvy owner had placed an Apple AirTag in within the car at an earlier date.⬇️October 18, 2022

The police force goes on to say that "this incident shows that placing trackers in vehicles does work in helping us locate them if they are unfortunately stolen." In a follow-up tweet, they went further, saying that they'd "encourage all car owners to consider putting a low-cost tracker in their car" as a way of expediting its recovery should it be stolen.

Unfortunately, the tweet also confirms that the people responsible for the theft hadn't been located, although inquiries are ongoing.

We’d encourage all car owners to consider putting a low-cost tracker in their car, to save them from possibly having a much more expensive problem later down the line!Enquiries are ongoing to locate those responsible. pic.twitter.com/ALbsdo7DArOctober 18, 2022

This isn't the first time that an AirTag has been used to locate a vehicle, but it's rare for a police force to actively suggest that using one would help them if a car was stolen.

Unfortunately, while AirTags are still relatively inexpensive, they aren't as cheap as they used to be in the UK. The price of a single AirTag increased by 20% from £29 to £35 earlier this week, caught in the same situation that also saw iPad Air and iPad mini price increases. While still some of the best iPads for many people, their price increases didn't come with any new features and were instead thought to be the result of the strong U.S. dollar.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.